WOODSTOCK, Ga. (ABP) — Barely a month before the annual Southern Baptist Convention, it's still unclear who will be nominated for president — a sign of the current uneasiness among conservatives in the denomination.
Georgia pastor Johnny Hunt, tapped as the nominee in February by SBC leaders, told his congregation April 30 he had decided not to seek the office.
Instead, Arkansas pastor Ronnie Floyd is expected to be nominated, several SBC leaders said on condition of anonymity.
Hunt, pastor of First Baptist Church of Woodstock, declined to discuss his reasons for withdrawing. But friends said he was not interested in running — and perhaps losing — in a contested election.
Although Hunt was the first choice of the SBC's conservative leadership, he was likely to face opposition from one or more other factions in the convention — most notably a loose-knit group of younger conservatives protesting what they call the leadership's narrow and exclusivistic track record.
The presidency has been the key to gaining and retaining control of the 16 million-member denomination and its agencies. The SBC's inerrantist leaders have controlled the position for almost three decades, usually running unopposed.
With the election set for the first day of the June 13-14 convention in Greensboro, N.C., time is running out for nominees to declare their intentions and gather support.
Complicating the picture further this year, a blue-ribbon SBC panel is calling for the election of officers who come from churches that contribute at least 10 percent of their undesignated receipts to the denomination — a standard few recent presidents could meet.
Hunt's church contributed $379,019 to the Cooperative Program, the SBC's missions and ministry budget, in 2005, which represents 2.2 percent of the churches undesignated receipts of $17,591,000.
Floyd's church, First Baptist of Springdale, reported $425,017 in CP gifts in 2005, representing 3.6 percent of undesignated receipts of $11,952,137. The Arkansas Baptist Convention, however, listed only $32,000 received from Springdale for the Cooperative Program.
Floyd did not respond to several media inquiries about the presidency. In the past, the person nominating the president makes the announcement, usually several months ahead of time. It's not known who will nominate Floyd, but an SBC leader told ABP unequivocally, “Ronnie will be nominated.”
Pastor of the largest church affiliated with the Arkansas Baptist State Convention, Floyd drew national attention when he preached a patriotic sermon during which he encouraged church members to “vote God” in the 2004 national presidential election. Although Floyd did not mention either President Bush or Democratic challenger John Kerry by name, he showed pictures of each while describing their positions on certain social issues, noting, “Rarely have we seen two candidates so diametrically opposed in their convictions.”
This is the second time Johnny Hunt has stepped aside from possible nomination for SBC president. A former president of the SBC Pastors' Conference, he was in line to be elected president in 2004 before current president Bobby Welch's nomination was announced. Hunt ultimately nominated Welch, the Florida pastor who concludes his second term this year.
The dark horse in this year's presidential election could be Wade Burleson, the International Mission Board trustee whose complaints about exclusionary IMB policies almost cost him his spot on the board.
He has become a favorite of the younger conservatives, especially the bloggers who have been tracking the IMB turmoil. Burleson told ABP in March he is not interested in denominational politics. But he has sounded more and more open to a possible nomination in his recent weblog postings.
In a May 2 post that read like a campaign speech, Burleson tried to deflect the attention: “I frankly am too busy for convention work. I don't want it, need it, or seek it. … If I believed a nomination to a position of service in the SBC would be detrimental to providing solutions to [the SBC's exclusivism], I would decline that nomination without hesitation. I will do what I believe is best for the convention — period.”
Burleson, pastor of Emmanuel Baptist Church in Enid, Okla., called for SBC leaders to abandon their cause of “convention conformity” and become more inclusive. “Unless we stop shrinking the parameters of what it means to be a Southern Baptist, we will end up being a narrow, isolated sect within Christendom and lose our ability to reach the world for Christ,” Burleson wrote.
Burleson participated in the meeting of younger conservatives May 2-3 that produced the “Memphis Declaration,” a statement of repentance for the triumphalism, arrogance and isolationism the signers said threatens the SBC's integrity.
The group did not endorse a presidential candidate. But organizer Ben Cole, speaking only for himself, said: “I have become convinced that there is a man in Southern Baptist life who is able to rise above all the constituencies and represent us all and to lead us in a time of self-reflection, reformation and renewal. … That man's name has not been made public. When his name is made public, I intend to rally behind him with everything I have, and I pray to God that He will put it in the heart of such a man to rise to such an occasion.”
Burleson is the only candidate mentioned whose church would meet the 10 percent standard for SBC giving. Emmanuel Baptist Church gave $105,000 to the Cooperative Program in 2005, representing 14 percent of undesignated receipts of $750,000.
Another faction making waves this year is the SBC's Calvinists. Increasingly organized and vocal, they will likely have a candidate to support, at least for first vice president.
Mark Dever, pastor of Capitol Hill Baptist Church in Washington, D.C., is expected to be nominated for SBC office, most likely first vice president. Dever, a prominent spokesman for Calvinist or Reformed theology in the SBC, was traveling out of the country and could not be reached for comment.
The vice presidential offices, which are more honorary than powerful, usually attract little attention before the June convention. This year, however, two confirmed nominees have surfaced for second vice president.
Wiley Drake, pastor of First Southern Baptist Church in Buena Park, Calif., will be nominated by Bill Dodson, a pastor in Kentucky. Drake is a regular fixture at Southern Baptist conventions, leading the charge in the SBC's boycott of Disney and frequently making resolutions on a number of topics.
And J. D. Greear, pastor of the Summit Church in Durham, N.C., will be nominated for second vice president, according to Daniel Akin, president of Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary in Wake Forest, N.C., who is expected to nominate him.
Greear may have an advantage, since the convention will be in nearby Greensboro, N.C. He was touted as representative of the “young leaders in the SBC.” But Drake participated in the recent meeting in Memphis organized by younger pastors.
Neither church meets the proposed standard for Cooperative Program giving, however.
Drake's church reported $1,000 given through the Cooperative Program last year, just over 1 percent of the church's reported receipts of $96,450. Greear's church reports $16,500 in gifts through the Cooperative Program, slightly less than 1 percent of the church's total undesignated receipts of $1.7 million.
Neither Dever's church nor the District of Columbia Baptist Convention would release giving records for the congregation.
The Southern Baptist Convention has been working to revive sluggish Cooperative Program giving, which funds the denomination's mission boards and other agencies. A February report of the Ad Hoc Cooperative Program Committee calls for the election of future convention officers on both the state and national levels from churches that give at least 10 percent through the Cooperative Program.
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